adjGeraldines 





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LADY GERALDINE'S COURTSHIP 



LADY GERALDINE'S 
COURTSHIP 

BY 

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING 

M 

ILLUSTRATED BY W. J. HENNESSY 
ENGRAVED BY W. J. LINTON 




BOSTON 

LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK 

CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM 



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5 



.A 



Entered according to Act ot Congress, in the year 1869, by 

Charles Scribner and Company, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



48 6555 

JUL 1 7 1942 



University Press: John Wilson & Son, 
Cambridge. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

DESIGNED BY W. J. HENNESSY— ENGRAVED BY W. J. LINTON 



PAGE 

PORTRAIT OF MRS. BROWNING Title 

LADY GERALDINE ...... . . i 

Halls among the woodlands 2 

Many vassals bow before her 4 

She has blessed their little children 5 

i grew scornfuller, grew colder, as i stood up there 

among them 9 

Slowly round she swept her eyelids lo 

The blessed woods of Sussex 13 

In that ANCIENT HALL OF WyCOMBE THRONGED THE NUMEROUS 

GUESTS INVITED 1 5 

The DEER HALF IN THE GLIMMER ly 

Went a-wandering up the gardens through the laurels 

and abeles 19 

As she turned her FACE IN GOING 20 

Through right nobleness grow humble 23 

Near the statue's white reposing — and both bathed in 

sunny air 27 

Just to feed the swans . . 28 

Or at times I read there . - .30 



iv ILL USTRA TIONS 

PAGii 

She would break out, on a sudden, in a gush of woodland 

SINGING • • -33 

The little children from the schools 35 

With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the glory 

of the stars 37 

Majestical white horses 39 

For I HAD been reading Camoexs — that poem you remember 43 

Fond of art and letters, too 45 

Nay, indeed, my lord, this talk is vain .... 47 
There I maddened ! her words stung me ! Life swept through 

me into fever 49 

She half arose 5' 

And I spake out wildly, fiercely, brutal truths of her 

AND others 53 

With whom first and last are equal 55 

Could you guess what word she uttered ? She looked up, 

AS IF IN wonder 59 

'TWAS MY STRENGTH OF PASSION SLEW ME ! — FELL BEFORE HER 

LIKE A STONE ^3 

TAIL-PIECE ^^ 

HEAD-PIECE TO CONCLUSION ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ -67 

'TWIXT THE PURPLE LATTICE-CURTAINS HOW SHE STANDETH STILL 

AND PALE 9 

'TiS THE VISION ONLY SPEAKS ..-•■•• 73 

TAIL-PIECE .,..'•- = ■■ 74 




LADY GERALDINE 

A ROMANCE OF THE AGE. 

A poet writes to his friend. Place — A room in Wycombe Hail. 

Time — Late in the roening. 

Dear my friend and fellow-student, I would lean 

my spirit o'er you ; 
Down the purple of this chamber, tears should 

scarcely run at will : 
I am humbled who was humble ! Friend, — I 

bow my head before you ! 
You should lead me to my peasants! — but their 

faces are too still. 



2 LADY GERALDINE 

There's a lady — an earls daughter; she is proud 
and she is noble; 

And she treads the crimson carpet, and she 
breathes the perfumed air; 

And a kingly blood sends glances up her princely 
eye to trouble, 

And the shadow of a monarch's crown is soft- 
ened in her hair. 




LADY GERALDINE 3 

She has halls among the woodlands, she has 

castles by the breakers, 
She has farms and she has manors, she can 

threaten and command. 
And the palpitating engines snort in steam 

across her acres. 
As they mark upon the blasted heaven the 

measure of her land. 

There are none of England's daughters who can 

show a prouder presence ; 
Upon princely suitors praying, she has looked 

in her disdain : 
She was sprung of English nobles, I was born 

of English peasants ; 
What was / that I should love her — save for 

competence to pain! 



4 LADY GERALDINE 

, I was only a poor poet, made for singing at her 

casement, 
As the finches or the thrushes, while she thought 

of other things. 
O, she walked so high above me, she appeared 

to my abasement. 
In her lovely silken murmur, like an angel clad 



in wings! 






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Many vassals bow before her as her carriage 
sweeps their door- ways , 



LADY GERALD INE 




She has blessed their Httle children, — as a 

priest or queen were she. 
Far too tender or too cruel far, her smile upon 

the poor was, 
For I thought it was the same smile which she 

used to smile on me. 



6 LADY GERALDINE 

She has voters in the commons, she has lovers 

in the palace — 
And of all the fair court-ladies, few have jewels 

half as fine : 
Oft the prince has named her beauty, 'twixt the 

red wine and the chalice : 
O, and what was / to love her? my Beloved, 

my Geraldinc ! 

Yet I could not choose but love her — I was 

born to poet uses — 
To love all things set above me, all of good 

and all of fair: 
Nymphs of mountain, not of valley, we are wont 

to call the Muses — 
And in nympholeptic climbing, poets pass from 

mount to star. 



LADY GERALDINE 7 

And because I was a poet, and because the 

people praised me, 
With their critical deduction for the modern 

writer's fault; 
I could sit at rich men's tables, — though the 

courtesies that raised me, 
Still suggested clear between us the pale 

spectrum of the salt. 

And they praised me in her presence: — "Will 

your book appear this summer?'" 
Then returning to each other — " Yes, our plans 

are for the moors ; " 
Then with whisper dropped behind me — " There 

he is ! the latest comer ! 
O, she only likes his verses! what is over, she 

endures. 



8 LADY GERALDINE 

" Quite low born ! self-educated ! somewhat gifted 

though by nature, — ■ 
And we make a point of asking him, — of being 

very kind ; 
You may speak, he does not hear you ; and 

besides, he writes no satire, — 
All these serpents kept by charmers, leave their 

natural sting behind." 

I grew scornfuller, grew colder, as I stood up 

there among them. 
Till as frost intense will burn you, the cold 

scorning scorched my brow ; 
When a sudden silver speaking, gravely cadenced, 

overrung them. 
And a sudden silken stirring touched my inner 

nature through. 



LADY GERALDINE 




I grew scornfuller, grew colder, as I stood up there among them. 



lO 



LABY GERALDINE 
I looked upward and beheld her! With a cahii 

and regnant spirit, 
Slowly round she swept her eyelids, and said 

clear before them all 

" Have you such superfluous honor, sir, that able 

to confer it 
You will come down, Mr. Bertram, as my guest 
to Wycombe Hall?" 




LADY GERALDINE II 

Here she paused, — she had been paler at the 
first word of her speaking ; 

But because a silence followed it, blushed some- 
what, as for shame ; 

Then, as scorning her own feeling, resumed 
calmly — "I am seeking 

More distinction than these gentlemen think 
worthy of my claim. 

" Ne'ertheless, you see, I seek it — not because 

I am a woman " 
(Here her smile sprang like a fountain, and, so, 

overflowed her mouth), 
" But because my woods in Sussex have some 

purple shades at gloaming 
Which are worthy of a king in state, or poet in 

his youth. 



12 LADY GERALDINE 

" I invite you, Mr. Bertram, to no scene for 

worldly speeches — 
Sir, I scarce should dare — but only where God 

asked the thrushes first — 
And \i yon will sing beside them, in the covert 

of my beeches, 
I will thank you for the woodlands, ... for the 

human world at worst." 

Then she smiled around right childly, then she 

gazed around right queenly ; 
And I bowed — I could not answer ! Alternated 

light and gloom — 
While as one who quells the lions, with a steady 

eye serenely. 
She, with level fronting eyelids, passed out 

stately from the room. 



LADY GERALDINE 



13 




O, the blessed woods of Sussex, I can hear them 

still around me, 
With their leafy tide of greenery still rippling 

up the wind ! 
O, the cursed woods of Sussex! where the 

hunters arrow found me, 
When a fair face and a tender voice had made 

me mad and blind ! 



14 LADY GERALDINE 

In that ancient hall of Wycombe, thronged the 

numerous guests invited, 
And the lovely London ladies trod the floors 

with gliding feet; 
And their voices low with fashion, not with 

feeling, softly freighted 
All the air about the windows, with elastic 

laughters sweet. 

For at eve, the open windows flung their light 

out on the terrace. 
Which the floating orbs of curtains did with 

gradual shadow sweep ; 
While the swans upon the river, fed at morning 

by the heiress. 
Trembled dow^nward through their snowy wings 

at music in their sleep. 



LADY GERALDINE 



15 




In (hat ancient hall of Wycombe, thronged the numerous guests invited. 



i6 



LADY GERALDINE 



And there evermore was music, both of instru- 



ment and singing ; 



Till the finches of the shrubberies grew restless 

in the dark; 
But the cedars stood up motionless each in a 



moonlight ringing, 



And the deer, half in the glimmer, strewed the 
hollows of the park. 




LADY GERALDINE I J 

And though sometimes she would bind me with 

her silver-corded speeches, 
To commix my words and laughter with the 

converse and the jest, 
Oft I sat apart, and gazing on the river through 

the beeches, 
Heard, as pure the swans swam down it, her 

pure voice oerfloat the rest. 

In the morning, horn of huntsman, hoof of steed, 

and laugh of rider, 
Spread out cheery from the court-yard till we 

lost them in the hills ; 
While herself and other ladies, and her suitors 

left beside her. 
Went a-wandering up the gardens through the 

laurels and abeles. 
3 



1 8 LADY GERALDINE 

Thus, her foot upon the new-mown grass — 

bareheaded — with the flowing 
Of the virginal white vesture gathered closely to 

her throat ; 
With the golden ringlets in her neck just 

quickened by her going, 
And appearing to breathe sun for air, and 

doubting if to float, — 

With a branch of dewy maple, which her right 

hand held above her, 
And which trembled a green shadow in betwixt 

her and the skies, 
As she turned her face in going, thus, she drew 

me on to love her. 
And to worship the divineness of the smile hid 

in her eyes. 



LADY GERALDINE 




Went a zvanderiiti^ up the gardens through the laurels and abele. 



20 



LADY GERALDINE 







W^m>r^- 1 1 



For her eyes alone smile constantly : her lips 

have serious sweetness, 
And her front is calm — the dimple rarely 

ripples on the check : 
But her deep blue eyes smile constantly, — as 

if they in discreetness 
Kept the secret of a happy dream she did not 

care to speak. 



LADY GERALDINE 21 

Thus she drew me the first morning, out across 

into the garden : 
And I walked among her noble friends and 

could not keep behind; 
Spake she unto all and unto me — " Behold I 

am the warden 
Of the song birds in these lindens, which are 

cages to their mind. 

" But within this swarded circle, into which the 

lime- walk brings us — 
Whence the beeches rounded greenly, stand 

away in reverent fear; 
I will let no music enter, saving what the 

fountain sings us, 
Which the lilies round the basin may seem pure 

enough to hear. 



22 LADY GERALDINE 

" The live air that waves the HHes waves this 

slender jet of water 
Like a holy thought sent feebly up from soul 

of fasting saint ! 
Whereby lies a marble Silence, sleeping! (Lough 

the sculptor wrought her,) 
So asleep she is forgetting to say Hitsh ! — a 

fancy quaint 

" Mark how heavy white her eyelids ! not a 

dream between them lingers ! 
And the left hand's index droppeth from the 

lips upon the cheek : 
And the right hand, — with the svmbol rose held 

slack within the fingers. 
Has fallen backward in the basin — yet this 

Silence will not speak ! 



LADY GERALDINE 23 

" That the essential meaning growing may exceed 

the special symbol, 
Is the thought as I conceive it : it applies more 

high and low. 
Our true noblemen will often through right 

nobleness grow humble, 
And assert an inward honor by denying outward 

show." 




24 LADY GERALDINE 

" Nay, your Silence," said I, " truly holds her 
symbol rose but slackly, 

Yet she holds it — or would scarcely be a Silence 
to our ken ! 

And your nobles wear their ermine on the out- 
side, or walk blackly 

In the presence of the social law as most 
io-noble men, 

o 

"Let the poets dream such dreaming! Madam, 

in these British islands, 
'Tis the substance that wanes ever, 'tis the 

symbol that exceeds ; 
Soon we shall have nought but symbol ! and 

for statues like this Silence, 
Shall accept the rose's image — in another case, 

the weed's." 



LADY GERALDINE 25 

" Not so quickly ! " she retorted, — "I confess 

where'er you go, you 
Find for things, names — shows for actions, and 

pure gold for honor clear ; 
But when all is run to symbol in the Social, I 

will throw you 
The world's book which now reads dryly, and 

sit down with Silence here." 

Half in playfulness she spoke, I thought, and 

half in indignation ; 
Friends who listened laughed her words off while 

her lovers deemed her fair. 
A fair woman — flushed with feeling, in her 

noble-lighted station 
Near the statue's white reposing — and both 

bathed in sunny air! 



26 LADY GERALDINE 

With the trees round, not so distant but you 
heard their vernal murmur, 

And beheld in light and shadow the leaves in 
and outward move ; 

And the little fountain leaping toward the sun- 
heart to be warmer. 

And recoiling in a tremble from the too much 
light above= 

'Tis a picture for remembrance ! and thus, 

morning after morning. 
Did I follow as she drew me by the spirit to 

her feet — 
Why, her greyhound followed also ! dogs — we 

both were dogs for scorning — 
To be sent back when she pleased it and her 

path lay through the wheat. 



LADY GERALDINE 



27 




Near the statue's white reposing — and both bathed in sunny air i 



28 



LADY GERALDINE 




And thus, morning after morning, spite of vows 
and spite of sorrow, 

Did I follow at her drawing, while the week- 
days passed along; 

Just to feed the swans this noontide, or to see 
the fawns to-morrow, 

Or to teach the hill-side echo some sweet 
Tuscan in a sone. 



LADY GERALDINE 29 

Aye, for sometimes on the hill-side, while we sat 

down in the gowans, 
With the forest green behind us, and its shadow 

cast before ; 
And the river running under ; and across it from 

the rowans 
A brown partridge whirring near us, till we felt 

the air it bore — 

There, obedient to her praying, did I read aloud 

the poems 
Made by Tuscan flutes, or instruments more 

various of our own ; 
Read the pastoral parts of Spenser — or the 

subtle interflowings 
Found in Petrarch's sonnets — here's the book 

— the leaf is folded down ! — 



30 LADY GERALDINE 

Or at times a modern volume, — Wordsworth's 

solemn-thoughted idyl, 
Howitt's ballad verse, or Tennyson's enchanted 

reverie, — 
Or from Browning some " Pomegranate," which, 

if cut deep down the middle. 
Shows a heart within blood-tinctured, of a veined 

humanity. 




LADY GERALDINE 3 1 

Or at times I read there, hoarsely, some new 

poem of my making — 
Poets ever fail in reading their own verses to 

their worth, 
For the echo in you breaks upon the words 

which you are speaking, 
And the chariot-wheels jar in the gate through 

which you drive them forth. 

After, when we were grown tired of books, the 

silence round us flinging 
A slow arm of sweet compression, felt with 

beatings at the breast, 
She would break out, on a sudden, in a gush of 

woodland singing. 
Like a child's emotion in a god — a naiad tired 

of rest. 



32 LADY GERALDINE 

O, to see or hear her singing! scarce I know 

which is divinest — 
For her looks sing too — she modulates her 

gestures on the tune ; 
And her mouth stirs with the song, like song; 

and when the notes are finest, 
'Tis the eyes that shoot out vocal light and seem 

to swell them on. 

Then we talked — O, how we talked ! her voice 

so cadenced in the talking, 
Made another singing — of the soul! a music 

without bars — 
While the leafy sounds of woodlands, humming 

round where we were walking. 
Brought interposition worthy-sweet — as skies 

about the stars. 



LADY GERALDINE 



33 




She luonhl break out, on a sudden, in a giisk of woodland singing. 
5 



34 LADY GERALDINE 

And she spake such good thoughts natural, as 

if she ahvays thought them — 
And had sympathies so rapid, open, free as bird 

on branch 
Just as ready to fly east as west, whichever way 

besought them, 
In the birchen wood a chirrup, or a cock-crow 

in the grange. 

In her utmost hghtness there is truth — and 
often she speaks Hghtly, 

Has a grace in being gay, which even mourn- 
ful souls approve, 

For the root of some grave earnest thought is 
understruck so rightly. 

As to justify the foliage and the waving flowers 
above. 



LADY GERALD INE 35 

And she talked on — we talked, rather ! upon all 

things — substance — shadow — 
Of the sheep that browsed the grasses — of the 

reapers in the corn — 
Of the little children from the schools, seen 

winding through the meadow — 
Of the poor rich world beyond them, still kept 

poorer by its scorn. 




36 LADY GERALD INE 

So of men, and so of letters — books are men 

of hisfher stature, 
And the only men that speak aloud for future 

times to hear: 
So of mankind in the abstract, which grows 

slowly into nature, 
Yet will lift the cry of " progress," as it trod 

from sphere to sphere. 

And her custom was to praise me when I said, 

" The Age culls simples, 
With a broad clowns back turned broadly to 

the glory of the stars — 
We are gods by our own reckoning, and may 

well shut up the temples. 
And wield on, amid the incense-steam, the 

thunder of our cars 



LADY GERALDTNE 



37 




With a Oroad daivn's back turned broadly to the glory of the stars. 



38 LADY GERALDINE 

" For we throw out acclamations of self-thank- 
ing, self-admiring, 

With, at every mile run faster, — ' O the 
wondrous, wondrous age.' 

Little thinking if we work our souls as nobly 
as our iron. 

Or if angels will commend us at the goal of 
pilgrimage. 

" Why, what is this patient entrance into nature's 

deep resources, 
But the child's most gradual learning to walk 

upright without bane ? 
When we drive out, from the cloud of steam, 

majestical white horses, 
Are we greater than the first men who led black 

ones by the mane ? 



LADY GERALDINE 



39 




" If we trod the deeps of ocean, if we struck 

the stars in rising, 
If we wrapped the globe intensely with one hot 

electric breath, 
Twere but power within our tether — no new 

spirit-power comprising ; 
And in life we were not greater men, nor 

bolder men in death." 



40 LADY GERALDINE 

She was patient with my talking; and I loved 

her — loved her certes, 
As I loved all Heavenly objects, with uplifted 

eyes and hands ! 
As I loved pure inspirations — loved the graces, 

loved the virtues. 
In a Love content with writing his own name 

on desert sands. 

Or at least I thought so purely ! — thought no 

idiot Hope was raising 
Any crown to crown Love's silence — silent 

Love that sat alone — 
Out, alas ! the stag is like me — he, that tries to 

go on grazing 
With the great deep gun-wound in his neck, 

then reels with sudden moan. 



LADY GERALDINE \\ 

It was thus I reeled ! I told you that her hand 

had many suitors; 
But she smiles them down imperially, as Venus 

did the waves, 
And with such a gracious coldness, that they 

cannot press their futures 
On the present of her courtesy, which yieldingly 

enslaves. 

And this morning, as I sat alone within the 

inner chamber 
With the great saloon beyond it, lost in pleasant 

thought serene — 
For I had been reading Camoens — that poem 

you remember. 
Which his lady's eyes are praised in, as the 

sweetest ever seen. 

6 



42 LADY GERALDINE 

And the book lay open, and my thought flew 

from it, taking from it 
A vibration and impulsion to an end beyond its 

own, 
As the branch of a green osier, when a child 

would overcome it, 
Springs up freely from his clasping and goes 

swinging in the sun. 

As I mused I heard a murmur — it grew deep 

as it grew longer — 
Speakers using earnest language — " Lady Ger- 

aldine, you would!''' 
And I heard a voice that pleaded ever on, in 

accents stronger 
As a sense of reason gave it power to make its 

rhetoric good. 



LADY GERALDINE 43 




For I had been reading^ Camoens — that poem yozi remember. 



44 LADY GERALDINE 

Well I knew that voice — it was an earl's, of 

soul that matched his station — 
Soul completed into lordship — might and right 

read on his brow: 
Very finely courteous — far too proud to doubt 

his domination 
Of the common people, — he atones for grandeur 

by a bow. 

Hio^h straisfht forehead, nose of eaojle, cold blue 

eyes, of less expression 
Than resistance, coldly casting off the looks of 

other men, 
As steel, arrows, — unelastic lips, which seem to 

taste possession. 
And be cautious lest the common air should 

injure or distrain. 



LADY GERALDINE 45 




For the rest, accomplished, upright, — aye, and 

standing by his order 
With a bearing not ungraceful ; fond of art and 

letters too ; 
Just a good man made a proud man, — as the 

sandy rocks that border 
A wild coast, by circumstances, in a regnant 

ebb and flow. 



46 LADY GERALDINE 

Thus, I knew that voice — I heard it — and I 

could not help the hearkening : 
In the room I stood up blindly, and my burning 

heart within 
Seemed to seethe and fuse my senses, till they 

ran on all sides darkening, 
And scorched, weighed, like melted metal round 

my feet that stood therein. 

And that voice, I heard it pleading, for love's 

sake — for wealth, position, 
For the sake of liberal uses, and great actions 

to be done — 
And she interrupted gently, " Nay, my lord, the 

old tradition 
Of your Normans, by some worthier hand than 

mine is, should be won." 



LADY GERALDINE 



47 




'^iU\'lb^'^1 



" Ah, that white hand," he said quickly, — and 

in his he either drew it 
Or attempted — for with gravity and instance 

she repHed — 
" Nay, indeed, my lord, this talk is vain, and we 

had best eschew it, 
Ana pass on, like friends, to other points less 

easy to decide." 



48 LADY GERALDINE 

What he said again, I know not. It is likely 

that his trouble 
Worked his pride up to the surface, for she 

answered in slow scorn — 
"And your lordship judges rightly. Whom I 

marry, shall be noble, 
Aye, and wealthy. I shall never blush to think 

how he was born." 

There, I maddened ! her words stung me ! Life 
swept through me into fever, 

And my soul sprang up astonished ; sprang, full- 
statured in an hour: 

Know you what it is when anguish, with apoc- 
alyptic NEVER, 

To a Pythian heioht dilates you, — and despair 
sublimes to power.? 



LADY GERALDINE 



49 




There, I madacued! her words stung me ! Life swept through me into 
fever 



50 LADY GERALDINE 

From my brain, the soul- wings budded ! — waved 
a flame about my body, 

Whence conventions coiled to ashes : I felt self- 
drawn out, as man, 

From amalgamate false natures ; and I saw the 
skies grow ruddy 

With the deepening feet of angels, and I knew 
what spirits can. 

I was mad — inspired — say either ! anguish 

worketh inspiration ! 
Was a man, or beast — perhaps so; for the tiger 

roars, when speared ; 
And I walked on, step by step, along the level 

of my passion — 
O my soul ! and passed the doorway to her face, 

and never feared. 



LABY GERALDINE 



51 




He had left her, — peradventure, when my foot- 
step proved my coming — 

But for //^r— she half arose, then sat — grew 
scarlet and grew pale: 

O, she trembled ! — 'tis so always with a worldly 
man or woman 

In the presence of true spirits — what else can 
they do but quail? 



52 LADY GERALDINE 

O, she fluttered like a tame bird, in among its 
forest-brothers 

Far too strong for it! then drooping, bowed 
her face upon her hands — 

And I spake out wildly, fiercely, brutal truths 
of her and others ! 

/, she planted in the desert, swathed her, wind- 
like, with my sands. 

I plucked up her social fictions, bloody-rooted 

though leaf-verdant, 
Trod them down with words of shaming, — all 

the purple and the gold, 
All the " landed stakes " and lordships — all that 

spirits pure and ardent 
Are cast out of love and honor because chancing 

not to hold. 



LADY GERALDINE 



53 




And I spake out ivildly, fiercely, brutal truths of her and others ! 



54 LADY GERALDINE 

" For myself I do not argue," said I, " though I 

love you, madam ; 
But for better souls that nearer to the height 

of yours have trod. 
And this age shows, to my thinking, still more 

infidels to Adam, 
Than direcUy, by profession, simple infidels to 

God. 

" Yet, O God," I said, " O grave," I said, " O 
mother's heart and bosom, 

With whom first and last are equal, saint and 
corpse and little child ! 

We are fools to your deductions, in these fig- 
ments of heart-closing ! 

We are traitors to your causes, in these sympa- 
thies defiled ! 



LADY GERALDINE 55 




" Learn more reverence, madam, not for rank 

or wealth — that needs no learning : 
That comes quickly — quick as sin does, aye, and 

culminates to sin ; 
But for Adam's seed, man ! Trust me, 'tis a 

clay above your scorning, 
Vv^ith God's image stamped upon it and God's 

kindling breath within. 



56 LADY GERALD INE 

" What right have you, madam, gazing in your 

palace mirror daily. 
Getting so by heart your beauty which all others 

must adore. 
While you draw the golden ringlets down your 

fingers, to vow gaily 
You will wed no man that's only good to God, 

— and nothino- more? 

o 

" Why, what right have you, made fair by that 

same God — the sweetest woman 
Of all women He has fashioned — with your 

lovely spirit-face. 
Which would seem too near to vanish if its 

smile were not so human, 
And your voice of holy sweetness, turning 

common words to sfrace. 



LADY GERALDINE 57 

" What right can you have, God's other works 
to scorn, despise, revile them 

In the gross, as mere men, broadly — not as 
noble men, forsooth, — 

As mere Pariahs of the outer world, forbidden to 
assoil them 

In the hope of living, dying, near that sweet- 
ness of your mouth ? 

" Have you any answer, madam ? If my spirit 

were less earthly. 
If its instrument were gifted with a better silver 

string, 
I would kneel down where I stand, and say — 

Behold me ! I am worthy 
Of thy loving, for I love thee! I am worthy as 

a kino:. 



58 LADY GERALDINE 

" As it is — your ermined pride, I swear, shall 

feel this stain upon her — 
That /, poor, weak, tost with passion, scorned 

by me and you again, 
Love you, madam — dare to love you — to my 

grief and your dishonor — 
To my endless desolation, and your impotent 

disdain ! " 

More mad words like these — more madness 

friend, I need not write them fuller; 
And I hear my hot soul dropping on the lines 

in showers of tears — 
O, a woman ! friend, a woman ! Why, a beast 

had scarce been duller 
Than roar bestial loud complaints against the 

shining of the spheres. 



LADY GERALDJNE 



59 




Could yoH giu-is lohat word she uttered '■ She looked up, as if in -cooiider. 



6o LADY GERALDINE 

But at last there came a pause. I stood all 

vibrating with thunder 
Which my soul had used. The silence drew 

her face up like a call. 
Could you guess what word she uttered ? She 

looked up, as if in wonder, 
With tears beaded on her lashes, and said 

" Bertram ! " It was all. 

If she had cursed me — and she mia^ht have 
— or if even, with queenly bearing 

Which at need is used by women, she had risen 
up and said, 

" Sir, you are my guest, and therefore I have 
given you a full hearing — 

Now, beseech you, choose a name exacting some- 
what less instead" — 



LADY GERALDINE 6 1 

I had borne it ! — but that " Bertram ! " — why it 

Hes there on the paper 
A mere word, without her accent, — and you 

cannot judge the weight 
Of the cahii which crushed my passion! I 

seemed drowning in a vapor, — 
And her gentleness destroyed me whom her 

scorn made desolate. 

So, struck backward and exhausted by that in- 
ward flow of passion 

Which had rushed on, sparing nothing, into 
forms of abstract truth, 

With a logic agonizing through unseemly demon- 
stration, 

And with youth's own anguish turning grimly 
gray the hairs of youth, — 



62 LADY GERALDINE 

By the sense accursed and instant, that if even 

I spake wisely 
I spake basely — using truth, — if what I spake 

indeed was true — 
To avenge wrong on a woman — her, who sat 

there weighing nicely 
A full manhoods worth, found guilty of such 

deeds as I could do ! — 

With such wrong and woe exhausted — what I 
suffered and occasioned, — 

As a wild horse through a city runs with light- 
ning in his eyes, 

And then dashing at a church's cold and passive 
wall, impassioned. 

Strikes the death into his burning brain, and 
blindly drops and dies — 



LADY GERALDINE 



63 




'T%vas my strength of passion slew me I— fell before her like a stone. 



64 LADY GERALDINE 

So I fell, struck down before her! Do you 

blame nie friend, for weakness ? 
'Twas my strength of passion slew me ! — fell 

before her like a stone ; 
Fast the dreadful world rolled from me, on its 

roaring wheels of blackness ! 
When the light came I was lying in this 

chamber — and alone. 

O, of course, she charged her lackeys to bear 

out the sickly burden, 
And to cast it from her scornful sight — but 

not beyond tlic gate — 
She is too kind to be cruel, and too haughty 

not to pardon 
Such a man as I — 'twere something to be level 

to her hate. 



LADY GERALDINE 65 

But for me you are now conscious why, my 
friend, I write this letter. 

How my Hfe is read all backward, and the charm 
of life undone ! 

I shall leave her house at dawn — I would to- 
night, if I were better — 

And I charge my soul to hold my body strength- 
ened for the sun. 

When the sun has dyed the oriel, I depart with 

no last gazes, 
No weak moanings — one word only left in 

writing for her hands. 
Out of reach of all derision, and some unavailing 

praises, 
To make front against this anguish in the far 

and foreign lands. 
9 



66 



LADY GERALDINE 



Blame me not. I would not squander life in 
orief — I am abstemious : 

o 

I but nurse my spirit's falcon, that its wing may 

soar again : 
There 's no room for tears cf weakness in the 

blind eyes of a Phemius : 
Into work the poet kneads them, — and he does 

not die //// then. 





CONCLUSION. 

Bertram finished the last pages, while along the 

silence ever 
Still in hot and heavy splashes, fell the tears on 

every leaf: 
Having ended, he leans backward in his chair, 

with lips that quiver 
From the deep unspoken, aye, and deep unwritten 

thoughts of grief. 



68 LADY GERALD INE 

Soil ! how still the lady standeth ! 'tis a dream 

— a dream of mercies ! 
'Twixt the purple lattice-curtains, how she 

standeth still and pale! / 

'Tis a vision, sure, of mercies, sent to soften his 

self-curses — 
Sent to sweep a patient quiet o'er the tossing 

of his wail. 



" Eyes," he said, " now throbbing through me ! 

are ye eyes tliat did undo me ? 
Shining eyes, like antique jewels set in Parian 

statue-stone ! 
Underneath that calm white forehead, are ye 

ever burning torrid 
O'er the desolate sand-desert of my heart and 

life undone ? " 



LADY GERALDTNE 69 




Said he, — " Vision of a lady ! stand there silent, stand there steady ! " 



'JO LADY GERALDINE 

With a murmurous stir uncertain, in the air 
the purple curtain 

Svvelleth in and swelleth out around her motion- 
less pale brows ; 

While the gliding of the river sends a rippling 



noise forever 



Through the open casement whitened by the 
moonlight's slant repose. 

Said he, — "Vision of a lady! stand there silent, 

stand there steady ! 
Now I see it plainly, plainly ; now I cannot hope 

or doubt — 
There, the brows of mild repression — there, the 

lips of silent passion, 
Curved like an archer's bow to send the bitter 

arrows out." 



LADY GEKALDINE 7^ 

Ever, evermore the while in a slow silence she 
kept smiling, 

And approached him slowly, slowly, in a gliding- 
measured pace ; 

With her two white hands extended, as if praying 
one offended. 

And a look of supplication, gazing earnest in 
his face. 

Said he, — "Wake me by no gesture, — sound 

of breath, or stir of vesture ; 
Let the blessed apparition melt not yet to its 

divine ! 
No approaching — hush! no breathing! or my 

heart must swoon to death in 
That too utter life thou bringest — O thou dream 

of Geraldine ! " 



72 LADY GERALDINE 

Ever, evermore the while in a slow silence she 

kept smiling — 
But the tears ran over lightly from her eyes, 

and tenderly ; 
" Dost thou, Bertram, truly love me ? Is no 

woman far above me 
Found more worthy of thy poet-heart than such 

a one as I ? " 

Said he, — "I would dream so ever, like the 
flowing of that river, 

Flowing ever in a shadow greenly onward to 
the sea; 

So, thou vision of all sweetness — princely to a 
full completeness, — 

Would my heart and life flow onward — death- 
ward — through this dream of thee ! " 



LADY GERALDINE 



73 




Ever, evermore the while in a slow silence she 

kept smiling, 
While the silver tears ran faster down the 

blushing of her cheeks ; 
Then with both her hands enfolding both of his, 

she softly told him, 
" Bertram, if I say I love thee, .... 'tis 

the vision only speaks." 



74 LADY GERALDINE 

Softened, quickened to adore her, on his knee 

he fell before her — 
And she whispered low in triumph — "It shall 

be as I have sworn ! 
Very rich he is in virtues, — very noble — noble, 

certes ; 
And I shall not blush in knowing that men 

call him lowly born ! " 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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